The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1887-01-20

treasure box already III the fOdu sifEt -
The intention and deliberation of the out
rage was plain enough to Hales inexperience
now. Yet he could not understand the cool
facquiescepce OF his fellow passengers, and
was furious. His reflections were interrupted
by q voice which seemed to come from q
greater distance He fancied it was eveh
softer In tone, as II certain austerity was
relaxed. g -
@Step in as quick as you like, gentlemen.
You've five minutes to wait, Bill" -
:, The passengers re-entered the coach; the
driver and express messenger ,hurriedly
climbed to their places Hale would have
spoken, but an impatient gesture from his
companions stopped him. They were evi.
IDENTIFY listening for something; he listened
too = g
Yet the silence remained unbroken. It.
seemed incredible that there should be no in.
dication near or far Of that forceful presence
which a moment ago had been so dominant.
Norustle in the wayside 'brush" nor echo
from the rocky canyon below betrayed q
soupd Of their flight. A faint breeze stirred
thetall tips Of the pines, a cone dropped on
the stage roof, one of the invisible horses,
that seemed to be listening too, moved slight
ly in his harness. But this only appeared to
acccntuato the profound stiffness Tho mo-
ments were growing irterminable, when the
voice, so near as to startle Hale, broke once
more from tho surrounding obscurity.
@Good nightin --- .--.--..e.. .------..-.- -
Nwas the signal that they were free. The
drivers whip cracked liko pistol shot, the
horses sprang furiously forward, the huge We
hicle llurched ahead and then bounded vio-
lently after them. When Hale could make
his voice heard In the eonfasian-s confusiaa
which seemed greater from the colorless In
tcnsity Of their last few moments experience
-he said hurriedIy, "Then that fellow was
there all the time!" 80 SRttE -
II reckon" returned his companion, che
stopped ave minutes to eoysr the driver with
his double barrel, until the two other men
got of with the treasure" =
~"The two others!" gasped Hale. "Then
there were only three men, and we six"
The man shrugged his shoulders. The pas
sengcr who had given up the greenbacks
drawied, With slow, irritating tolerance,
"Ireckon you're stranger herer
~ am-to this sort of thing. certainly,
though 1.-Two dozen miles from here, at Ea-
sls's Court" returned Hale scornfully,
."Then you're the chap that's dnin that
fancy ranchin' over at Eagles" continued
the man laxily. - go
& aWhotevcr I'm doing OF Eagles Court I'm
not ashamed of it," said Hale tartly; "and
that's moro than can say of what I've done
-or haven't done-to-nisht. rvebeen one of
sir men overawed and robbed by three"
aAs to the overawin', ez you call it-naoh-
be you know more about it than us As to
the robbin'-ez far as kin remember, YOU
haven,ts onluadcd much. IF you're talkin'
about what ouglter've been done, I'll tell you
what could have happened. P'r'aps ye no.
lced that when he pulled up ] n,ado kind
of grab for my Weeping behind n,ef' -.
II did; and you weren't quick enough
said Hale shortly. -
81 wasn't o.. .e"lt enough, and that saved
you. For eff got that pistol out AM. -'a''l
q that man that held the gun" '.I..t. .
"Well,p said Hale impasiently, "he'd have
besitated" ....~.... - 81. ..s.....s .
"IIed hev blown you with both barrels
outer tho window, and that before I'd got
half cock on my revolver" -....,.s ...,
"But that would have been only one man
gone, and there would have been five of you
left" said Hale haushtily. ''"'ri." .'.'
"That might have been eff you'd contracted
to take the hull charge of two handfuls of
buckshot and slugs; but ez ore.eighth of that
amount would have done your business, and
yet left enough to have gone round, pramis-
kiss, and satisfied the other passengers, it
wouldn't do to kalkilate upon"
.'But the express messenger and the driver
we're armed Continued Hale. -
s.Tbey were armed, but not fixed; that
rnekes allthe difference" @- .,r-.. =.
81 don't understand"
81 reckon you know what duel isf' :,
eyes" g.. ;,&-r,: -. .,..s, .--,.:- ..
'Well, the chances agin us was about the
same as you'd have Of you was pat up agfl
another chap who was allowed to draw a
bead on you, and the signal to fire was your
DRAWN your weapon. You may be a
stranger to this sort q thing, and p'Eaps you
never fought duel, but even then You
wouldn't go foolin' your life away on any
such chances"
Something in the mans manner, as In a
certain sly amusement the other passengers
appeared to extract from the conversation,
impressed Halo, already beginning to be con-
scious of the ludicrous insufiiciency af bis own
grievance beside that of his interlocutor.
sThen you mean to say this thing is in
evitable,n said be bitterly, but less aggres-
sivesy.
"Ez long ez they hunt you; when you hunt
them you've got the ad, antago, allus pro-
vided you know how to get at them ez well
as they know how to get ct you. This yer
coach is bound to 60 regular, and ON certain
days they amt BY the time the sheriff
gets out his posse they've skedaddled, and the
leader, Ike as not, is takin' his quiet cocktail
at the Bank Exchange. or mebbe losin' his
earnings TO the sheriff over draw poker IN
Sacramento. You see you can't prove any
thing agin them unless sou take them 'on the
hy.' 1t may DO part of joaquin Murietts's
band, though wouldn't swear to it, :1
"The leader might have been Gentleman
George, from up country" interposed pas
senger. "He seemed to throw in few fancy
touches, particlerly in that Good night
Sertsr chucked little sentiment in it.
Didn't seem to be the same thing ez Git, yer
did suckers, on the other linea
eWhoeyer he was he knew the road and
the men who Travelled on 1t. Like ez not be
went over the line beside the driver on the
box on the down "trip, and took stock of
everything. Ho even knew had those
greenbacks, though they were handed to me
In tho bank at Sacramento. He must have
been hangin' round theFp,H
For some moments Hale remained silent,
He was a civic-bred man, with an intense love
Of lazy and order; the kind OF man who Is the
first to take that law and order into bis own
hands when he docs not And IL existing to
please him. 10 had o Boston;an's respect fer
responsibility, tradition and propristy, but
was willing to faco irregularity and impro.
priety to create order elsewhere. he was
fond Of nature with these limitations, never
quite trusting her unguided instincts, and
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